An Old Friendship
by Emi-Chan1
Summary: This is a Mysterious Ways/Harry Potter crossover, exploring the possibility that Miranda may be a witch. Chapter 4 is up!
1. Reunion

Bill Weasly was just getting out of Gringotts for his lunch break and was strolling through Diagon Alley like he always did. On this particular day, he was deep in thought, reminiscing on his days in Hogwarts.  
  
He remembered being climbing onto the Hogwarts Express for the very first time. Soon after he had escaped his mothers numerous goodbye hugs and kisses, he made his way to the walkway and started looking for empty compartments.  
  
He had poked his head into one particular compartment to find a girl about his age sitting there and reading an unusually large book.  
  
Bill smiled to himself. He had had quite the interesting relationship with that girl ... until she left after her first year.  
  
"Do you mind if I sit here?" he had asked politely.  
  
Without taking her eyes off her book, she mumbeled her acceptance of his presence, "Help yourself."  
  
He settled down in the seat and observed her for a while. She seemed to be enjoying herself, scanning the pages rather quickly and once in a while, stopping at a particularly interesting part. He finally couldn't help asking, "What ya readin'?"  
  
"Physics," she said in a monotone, looking up at him momentarily before casting her eyes back down toward the words that seemed to captivate her.  
  
"Is it interesting?" he asked.  
  
"Mmmm ..." she mumbled, sounding a little annoyed.  
  
Bill smiled again at the recollection.  
  
Then, as if pulled out of his memory, he saw her right in front of him. She was older, of course, but she had the same expression on her face. At first glance it seemed expressionless, vacant, but if you knew her well enough you knew that she was capable of just as much feeling as anyone else.  
  
Bill pulled himself out of his reverie and approached her. "Miranda? Is that you?" he asked in a surprised tone.  
  
~*^*~  
  
Miranda had had to ask the bartender at the Leaky Cauldron to get her into Diagon Alley. She had given up her wand years ago when she decided to live as a muggle.  
  
She, Declan, and Peggy were on an investigation of a cathedral that seemed to be haunted by a saint. She had left them happily arguing away on whether or not there actually *was* a ghost there and decided to take a trip down memory lane. She had planned to come here anyway, but she hadn't been quite sure when she would be able to get away. One thing was for sure, she could *not* tell Declan that she just happened to be a witch.  
  
She had to laugh as she imagined what Declan's reaction would be. Of course, she knew that if he found out, he'd want to investigate, and Miranda wasn't quite sure if the wizarding world would appreciate being investigated.  
  
So here she was, eating a strawberry sundae at Florean Fortescue's and reminiscing on her year at Hogwarts. She hadn't really had any friends, but that was to be expected.  
  
Well, actually, there was one. That red-headed boy ... Bill. He was quite the character. She remembered the first time she met him, on the Hogwarts Express. She had been quite annoyed with him at the time because he wouldn't let her read.  
  
"That looks like a very long book." his voice came to her memory.  
  
Miranda had rolled her eyes. It was quite obvious that it was a very long book. She was currently reading the same sentence for the fifth time. Trying to ignore him, she concentrated on the words on the page.  
  
"So what house do you think you'll be in?" he asked.  
  
"I don't know." she answered irritably.  
  
He seemed oblivious to the annoyance in her voice and continued on, "I hope I get into Gryffindor. That's where both my parents were and where my brother Charlie is right now. Do you have any brothers or sisters in Hogwarts?"  
  
"No." she said truthfully. None of her brothers had ever gotten the unusual letter written in green calligraphy. But then again, they were all destined to work for the vineyard anyway.  
  
"Really? What about your parents? What house were they in?" he asked.  
  
"My parents are muggles." she said simply, hoping that this would be the end of the conversation. She was wrong.  
  
"Really?" he said, his brown eyes widening, "I've never met a muggle born before. Is it true that you can talk to people who are miles a way with little thingamabobbers you hold in your hand?"  
  
"You mean telephones?" she asked a little amusedly. Then she quickly forced a serious look on her face. "If you don't mind I would like to read my book."  
  
"Oh," he said, sounding disappointed, "sorry."  
  
"Miranda? Is that you?" a voice brought her out of her memories. She turned toward where the voice was coming from and saw a very tall man with long red hair pulled back into a ponytail. He had changed a lot, but there was only one person that this could possibly be: Bill Weasley. 


	2. The Sorting

Miranda probably would have been captivated by the Great Hall's bewitched celing, made to look like the skies, but the twinkling stars above her head didn't hold her attention. Instead, her gaze was fixed on an old, raggedy hat being donned by one student after another.  
  
"RAVENCLAW!" the hat called while on one boy's head.  
  
"Figelsteen, Miranda." she heard her name called and her stomach did a flip-flop. It wasn't that she was scared of the hat, she just hated going up in front of the entire school.  
  
Miranda felt herself shaking as she walked up to the stool that the hat was on and put it on her head.  
  
"Ahhh, an intelligent one, I see." a voice seemed to come from nowhere. She then realized that it was the hat itself talking. "Yes, I can see that you would be an excellent addition to Hufflepuff ... but I also sense strength in you. Quiet strength, but strength nonetheless. Yes, you belong in GRYFFINDOR!"  
  
Half startled at the sudden exclamation and half relieved that it was over, Miranda numbly walked over to the Gryffindor table amid cheers from its occupants. She found an empty seat and sat down before settling to watch the rest of the sorting.  
  
It really wasn't very interesting, and Miranda found herself wishing she hadn't put her Physics book back in her trunk. This person went to Slytherin, that girl went to Hufflepuff, and someone else went to Ravenclaw, and whenever 'Gryffindor' was called, Miranda had to cover her ears because everyone at the table insisted on cheering at the top of their lungs whenever a new person came to their house.  
  
Through the whole thing, she noticed that the boy she had met on the train ride was still waiting to be sorted, and wondered why it was taking so long to get to him. Then she chided herself for caring.  
  
He turned out to be the last one: "Weasley, William."  
  
He walked up to the stool and put the hat on, and for a brief moment, Miranda wondered what the hat might be saying to him. It must have been a tough decision because it ended up taking quite a while, but finally, the exclamation of "GRYFFINDOR!" could be heard throughout the Great Hall. Dispite herself, Miranda clapped along with the rest of the Gryffindors at the arrival of a new member.  
  
~*^*~  
  
"I remember it like it was yesterday." Bill said with a smile. He had now joined Miranda at her table. "So what have you been up to lately?"  
  
"I'm going to college in muggle America." Miranda said, tucking one of her dark brown locks behind her ear.  
  
"Really?" Bill asked, "Going into Physics?"  
  
"How did you guess?" Miranda asked sarcastically.  
  
"I dunno, I guess seeing you reading about a hundred physics books in the course of the nine months I knew you kinda tipped me off." he replied with a wink, "What brings you to England?"  
  
Miranda pondered for a moment on how to explain this one. "The professor I work for has an interest in ..." she faltered a moment, trying to find the right word, "supernatural ... stuff ... and I came with him on an investigation."  
  
"Supernatural?" Bill questioned.  
  
"Yeah ... you know ... like miracles and coincidences ... and anything out-of-the-ordinary." It was a little hard to describe exactly what Declan did. He wasn't your average run-of-the-mill professor, that was for sure.  
  
Bill raised an eyebrow. "Does he know ...?" he asked, wordlessly finnishing his question with 'that you're a witch?'  
  
"No," Miranda said, picking up his implication, "no, he doesn't."  
  
Bill glanced at his watch and his eyes widened. "I'm late for work." he said quickly, "I've got to go. Maybe I'll se you again sometime?"  
  
Miranda smiled. "Sure. Tomorrow ... same time?"  
  
"Sounds good. See you then." He flashed her a smile and dashed down the alley.  
  
Miranda watched him for a second, then figured that it was about time to check up on what Declan and Peggy were up to. She picked up the bag she had with her and made her way back toward the Leaky Cauldron.  
  
~*^*~  
  
"Where were you all morning?" Declan asked as Miranda entered his hotel room.  
  
"Around." Miranda said, giving him a 'don't ask' glare.  
  
Declan raised an eyebrow at her, but then decided to accept her answer.  
  
"So where's Peggy?" Miranda asked.  
  
"She went to go get lunch." he said, then he got a guilty look on his face, "Sorry, I didn't get anything for you."  
  
"I've already had lunch." Miranda said, "Any new developments?"  
  
"Nothing yet. We got all the equipment set up, but St. Gregory just doesn't seem to want to show himself." Declan said grimly.  
  
Miranda settled herself on Declan's bed. Not surprisingly, the small hotel room already looked as if he had lived in it for quite a while. There were various pieces of paper, magazines, and books spread on the floor, on the bed, and even inside the open drawer of the desk.  
  
"So did you have fun going 'around' this morning?" Declan asked cautiously, his question quickly met by a second warning glare from Miranda. She didn't want him involved in this ... not if she could help it. She would have to find some excuse to get away tomorrow, but she knew she'd figure it out.  
  
~*^*~  
  
"Now you get to see the Gryffindor house!" Charlie said excitedly as Bill trailed behind him, "It's great, you'll love it."  
  
Charlie always acted high-and-mighty just simply because he wasn't a first year any more, and he felt it his duty as an all-knowing second year, to give Bill the grand tour. Bill just smiled and nodded.  
  
As everyone exited the Great Hall, Bill put himself in auto-pilot mode and sleepily followed Charlie and the rest of the people in his house.  
  
"... and that's the Transfiguration classroom, and down that staircase a little ways is Potions. Word of the wise ... watch out for Snape ..."  
  
Charlie's constant chatter continued, and Bill continued to pay little attention to it. 'I'll let him talk,' he said to himself, 'I'm not in the mood to argue.'  
  
Quite suddenly, he was shaken out of his semi-trance when he walked straight into someone.  
  
"Watch out!" came a familiar voice.  
  
"I'm sorry ..." he said as the dark-haired girl got up from the ground.  
  
She didn't say anything. Instead, she turned and walked faster than she had been before.  
  
"Fine," Bill said, even though she was way out of earshot by then, "be that way." 


	3. You're Late

Miranda woke up to a noise coming from her hotel room door.  
  
Knock, knock, knock.  
  
"Miranda? You up?" she heard Declan ask through the door.  
  
'I am now ...' she said to herself as she threw on her dressing gown and went to open her door.  
  
"Yes?" she said in mock politeness as she opened the door to reveal Declan holding three cups of coffee with Peggy behind him.  
  
"Weren't you going to meet us out at the lobby this morning?" he asked.  
  
Miranda froze. She had completely forgotten.  
  
"I ... I'll be down in a minute."  
  
"Okay." Declan said as he turned to walk down the hall.  
  
~*^*~  
  
At about the same time, in a small flat near Diagon Alley, Bill Weasley woke up and found the hand on his clock start to lean toward "You're late". His brown eyes opened completely as he immediately grabbed the clothes he was going to wear that day.  
  
It took him about five minutes to get dressed, brush his hair and put it in a ponytail, brush his teeth, and nuke a small breakfast pastery with his wand. He laughed to himself at the thought of what his mother might say if she ever found out what he had for breakfast every morning.  
  
'William Bernard Weasely! How can you possibly think of starting your day without a proper breakfast?!'  
  
He then realized that he was still late for work. He hastily picked up his slightly burnt pastery (he was never that good with cooking even the simplest things) and disapparated straight to the front door of Gringotts.  
  
~*^*~  
  
Bill ran down complicated Hogwarts hallways, hurriedly searching for the Transfiguration classroom.  
  
It was his third day of school and he *still* didn't know how to get to his classes. Of course, it didn't help that the hallways always seemed to move around at will.  
  
Finally, the pictures hanging on the walls started to look familiar and he raced even faster toward the door that was on the left only a few yards away.  
  
THUMP!  
  
"OW!"  
  
Bill found himself on the floor directly in front of the door, facing a girl with dark brown hair.  
  
"Figelsteen! Weasley!" Both of them looked up to see Professor McGonagall standing over them. "You're late!"  
  
"I know, Professor Mc --" Bill started.  
  
"Next time it will be ten points from Gryffindor." she said calmly, then she turned around and went back into the classroom.  
  
Bill and Miranda quickly followed her inside and found the only two seats left ... which happened to be right next to eachother.  
  
~*^*~  
  
Miranda had planned (or at least hoped) to slip out unnoticed, but just as she was exiting the cathedral she heard a voice from behind her.  
  
"Where are you going?" It was Declan.  
  
"Out." Miranda said quickly.  
  
Declan gave her a 'that's kind of obvious' look.  
  
"I'm ... visiting a friend ..." she said, knowing she wouldn't get away without an explanation, "Someone I used to go to school with."  
  
"Oh." Declan nodded as if giving his consent, and Miranda went out the door.  
  
The Leaky Cauldron was only a few blocks away, and it was a nice day for a walk. It was early summer and there was a nice breeze gently blowing around the crowded London street.  
  
She finally did reach the small bar sandwitched between the bookstore and the record store. She opened the door and went inside.  
  
It was only her third time in the Leaky Cauldron. Her mother had taken her here when she was going to go to school at Hogwarts. Her father had refused to come.  
  
"Back again, I see."  
  
Miranda turned toward the bartender, appearantly named Tom.  
  
"Yeah." she answered him.  
  
"You need to get into Diagon Alley again?" he asked.  
  
"Yeah." she said again.  
  
"All right." he said pulling out his wand and getting out from behind the counter.  
  
She followed him to the trash can that was sitting beside the brick wall and watched him tap one of the bricks. Immediately, a huge archway formed and Miranda stepped out into Diagon Alley.  
  
After saying thank-you to the bartender, Miranda settled herself in a chair outside Florean Fortescue's. She glanced at her watch. She was right on time, but appearantly Bill was not.  
  
~*^*~  
  
Miranda focused all of her energy on the tiny match in front of her. She was going to turn it into a needle if it killed her.  
  
She raised her wand and muttered "Transfiguro!"  
  
The match immediately lit on fire. Miranda jumped up from her seat and screamed.  
  
"Finite ignem!" Professor McGonagall called from across the room. The fire was quenched.  
  
"You're doing it all wrong!" Bill said, tossing yet another perfect needle into a pile on his desk. "You're concentrating too hard."  
  
Miranda fumed, but didn't say anything. As hard as it was for her to admit, he was probably right. She sighed and pulled out another match, this time, trying to relax a little more.  
  
"Transfiguro!" she said again, waving her wand. She almost didn't want to look at it because she knew it was still going to be a match. When she finally did look at it, it was, indeed a match, but it had turned slighly silvery and looked a little thinner. She cautiously put a finger on one end of it and felt a prick. It was pointy!  
  
"See? What'd I tell you?" Bill said smugly.  
  
Miranda glared at him and went back to her work. Bill shrugged and went back to his own work. Neither of them talked to the other again during that class. 


	4. Comfort

A/N: Yes, chapter four is finally here. Sorry it took so long! Computer troubles. Anyway, this chapter takes place entirely in the past.  
  
  
The first month of school was not easy for Miranda. She was constantly messing everything up, and she wasn't used to that. There were countless times when Miranda was on the verge of tears because she couldn't do anything right, and the teachers repremanded her for it. The chemistry skills she had already learned on her own helped her to do well enough in Potions, but thanks to Professor Snape, that class was just as bad as all of the others.  
  
"You know, with all of those books she reads, you'd think she'd be smarter." Miranda overheard one of her fellow students saying.  
  
The other student involved in the conversation laughed. "Muggles." he scoffed, "It amazes me that Dumbledore still lets the stupid gits in. They're obviously good for nothing."  
  
"I hear her parents are rich." the first boy put in, "Maybe they found out about the wizarding world and bribed Dumbledore into taking her."   
  
Both boys burst out laughing.Miranda clenched her teeth and willed herself to keep walking and not cry.  
  
~*^*~  
  
Bill climbed through the portrait hole and went into the common room.  
  
She wasn't there.  
  
Bill sighed. He hadn't seen Miranda in Charms class that morning or at lunch. He was worried.  
  
He finally reasoned that there was only one place she could be. He eyed the stairway to the girls' bedrooms warily.  
  
He braced himself and ran up the stone stairway until he reached the door marked 'FIRST YEARS'. He hesitated for a moment before turning the doorknob and entering the room.  
  
It turned out to be exactly like the boys room with large four-poster beds complete with scarlet drapes. The only difference was the decoration on the walls and covering the dressers. It could only be described as *girly*.  
  
One dresser, however, was instead covered in a simple black cloth and stacked high with various books. On the wall above her dresser hung a large picture of a strange-looking man with grey hair that went out in every direction imaginable. And even more strange ... he didn't even move. But then, he had heard that muggle portraits were like that.  
  
It was at that moment that Bill remembered why he was there, and recognized a muffled crying sound coming from the bed beside the strange poster.  
  
"Miranda?" he asked tentatively.  
  
"Go away." came the tearful voice behind the drapes.  
  
"Miranda, I was worried --"  
  
"I'm fine." she cut him off.  
  
"You don't sound fine." he said.  
  
"Yeah?" she asked, "What do you care anyway?"  
  
Bill fell silent. He wasn't quite sure what to say to that.  
  
"Just leave me alone, okay?" she said impatiently.  
  
"No." Bill said with a resolution that surprised even himself.  
  
Miranda made an agitated sound and threw open her drapes. "What do you want from me, anyway?" she demanded.  
  
"I want to know what's wrong." he said simply.  
  
"As if you'd understand."  
  
"I might."  
  
"How can you?" she finally exploded, "You've been a wizard all your life. You can do any spell you want right off the top of your head!"  
  
Bill was surprised at this outbreak. It was, quite possibly, the most words he'd heard from her at any one time. "You have your own talents ..." he managed weakly.  
  
"I just don't understand why I'm here if I'm not any good at magic." she said, sounding very defeated.  
  
Bill hesitated for a second. " ... you'll learn."  
  
"When??" Miranda finally exploded, "When will I learn? That's what I want to know, because right now, I'm at the bottom of my class and I've ..." She trailed off, her momentary change in persona obviously scaring her.  
  
"-- and you've never been there before?" Bill asked tentatively.  
  
"Just leave me alone." Miranda said, "I have to deal with this on my own."  
  
"But, Miranda --"  
  
"Leave me alone." Her voice was hushed, but the tone was cutting, forcing Bill to obey, but not without saying one last thing.  
  
"You know, Miranda, it would really do you some good to let people help you out once in a while." He had barely finished his sentence when a glare from Miranda ushered him out the door.  
  
~*^*~  
  
It was right before Potions class. Bill looked at his watch and sighed. The arrow was dangerously close to 'class time' and Miranda's seat remained unoccupied. He got even more worried when Professor Snape walked to the front of the room and began his usual lecture at the beginning of class.  
  
Miranda was missing yet another class.  
  
With one more worried glance at the door, he went about taking notes.  
  
" ... it was discovered that certain kinds of cactus needles work exceptionally well in accentuating the potentcy of -- Miss Figilsteen," The name made Bill's head snap up. "would you care to explain why you are late?"  
  
"I ... I got lost ..." was her response. Obviously, she'd have to be taught some better excuses.  
  
"Indeed." Snape said sourly, "Ten points from Gryffindor. Please take your seat, Miss Figilsteen."  
  
Miranda took the empty seat next to Bill.  
  
It was always risky businness for a Gryffindor student to attempt to talk in Snape's class, but Bill waited until Snape's eye was on the other side of the room and cautiously whispered, "You doing better?" over to Miranda.  
  
Miranda answered with a barely visible shrug.  
  
Bill was about to ask, 'Is that a yes shrug or a no shrug?' when he noticed Snape looking in his direction again.  
  
It would have to wait.  
  
A/N: Part four is done!!!!! It's about time. Okay. You all know I love feedback, so, whadda ya think? 


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